First day of school & community Building activities
Unlike most of the posts on this little website of mine, this one is an ongoing compilation as I accumulate and try out new activities. Some require more time than others, but I believe all are valuable activities that promote teamwork and collaboration. If you have any suggestions to add, please feel free to email me about them! I am always looking for suggestions of ways to make our class feel more like a family!
Guess who?
On individual notecards, students write down some facts about themselves that people in the class might be surprised by or have a difficult time guessing. The teacher will provide all of the prompts, and once all answers have been recorded, the students will select three of their responses to circle. The circled responses will be the ones read aloud to the class, so they should be the ones that the student feels makes them most unique. Make sure all students are reminded multiple times to write their name at the top of the notecard. Students should also be reminded that this is a “top secret” or “ninja” style activity, so all of their responses should be shielded from the people at their table or the game will be way too easy and no fun. This activity can be utilized as a get-to-know you game at the beginning of the year, but could also be utilized throughout the year to help students feel special and valued. The teacher could read all of the responses at once, or could space them out and read a few every day. This activity would be appropriate for students in second grade or above, as writing, problem-solving, and deductive reasoning skills will be in the developing stages by this point.
Group Hop
This next activity I have tried with fourth graders and they absolutely LOVED it. Requiring both coordination and communication, it was challenging but also fun. The teacher should divide students into groups of four or five people. The students should stand in a straight line with their groups. Students should put their right hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them and their left leg forward so that the person in front of them can hold onto their ankle. Once the group has mastered this position, the group should be given time to practice and see how far they can hop forwards without toppling over. After a few minutes, we took our students out to the hall and the groups raced.
Tower of Similarities
Divide students up into groups of three or four. Hand each group a small stack of notecards and make sure at least one member of the group has a marker or pencil. Give the students ten minutes to build the tallest tower of cards possible, with one catch: on each card utilized in the tower, students must write down one similarity that all group members share. For example, my group might choose to write "we all love cheese stuffed crust in our pizza" or "we all have freckles." Students may bend their cards. Students may also tear their cards in half, but each half must have something unique written on it. Once the timer sounds, no students may be touching the tower and it may not be leaning against any other items in the classroom for support, it must be free standing. In the event of a tie, the group that wins is the group whose similarities written on their cards are most creative (as determined by the teacher, of course).
Human Alphabet
For this game you will need an open space; if the weather cooperates, this would be the perfect opportunity to take the class outside. To begin, have students practice forming letters with their bodies. For example, "Use your body to make an 'R'... now make an E!" Next, divide students into small groups of four or five students. Call out short, simple words (like "ball" or "frog") and students will need to assemble the words using their bodies as the letters. If not all group members are utilized in the spelling of the word, tell the extra group members to be directors and assign letters to their peers. If students quickly master this task, develop longer words to get larger portions of the class involved (like "onomatopoeia" or "awkwardly").